With 2 staff off work this week I've been helping as much as possible with my buddy/boss to double time running around office buildings to get the plant watering/maintenance done. Each day we made sure to sit down and have a proper lunch - no choice we were burning calories like there was no tomorrow. Every night I reclined on my couch with the fan blowing on my throbbing feet - whew. I've slept 12 hours last night and it's noon! Next week I will actually be going in on Monday to water my babies because they don't know it's a holiday and it doesn't matter to me, I just don't want them fainting. At least it's back to normal again. Today I'm cooking up a storm for my freezer. Still stewing tomatoes from the garden. Going to shred zucchini/onion/carrot/turnip and dump them in a 3 minute boil in chicken broth (just enough to cover) and cool it to freeze for winter soup base and I have about 6 black bananas that are screaming banana/walnut bread to me (I freeze that in slices on a tray, then ziplock so I don't have to take a loaf out. Later, when I'm bored - hahahahahahahahaha - have to pick more tomato, beans and get them in the freezer too. Tomorrow I hope to pull spent plants out, work in my grass compost and plant lettuce, peas, beets and other fall plants (have to check my garden books again). I just love this time of year. I don't can stuff - YET - but that is on future to do lists - still organizing the basement junk and getting rid of clutter. It's better to can stuff - cheaper in the long run and less risky in case of a power outage but I'm not quite there yet. Sorry for being MIA but it's been so busy this week I've actually just wanted to sit and stare at the TV at night. No energy to even play on the laptop at all. This evening I will catch up reading all of your posts and get back in touch. Love ya! Peggy

"Gary, out of sheer curiosity, what wholesale HVAC warehouses did you look into around our area (though I believe you bought it in PA, didn't you?)? Is there one for Trane/American Standard you checked out (do you think you could somehow get equipment from them?)? I think I recall you saying you priced an American Standard system for around $3k and was curious where this was." Ryan: I did indeed get an A/S quote "back in the day" when I first started looking. It was a Heritage 13 3-ton (don't think the air handler was v-s) with 15 kw strip heat for $3600. It was from Northeast Plumbing and Supply. They weren't too happy that I called them for pricing as I am not a pro. I wound up geting a 14 SEER, 12 EER, 9 HSPF Goodman. Copeland scroll, and a full 36,000 btu cooling and 35,000 btu heating. I went with the 3-speed air handler and TXV. Also got a hard-start cap, bypass humifier, filter/drier, sight glass, and condenser mounting pad. Paid $2500 for everything from DESCO, over the MD state line in Hanover PA. I picked everything up from their warehouse with a tow trailer. They provide the 10 year parts warranty. My wife works for a Property Management Company so I paid one of their pros $1200 to install it. 2 guys, 8 hours each. He had to fabricate 2 custom duct pieces for the installation. $3700 total for the new heat pump. So far so good with the Goodman. Take care.

Didn't do a lot of shopping, Lars, we're more into looking at historical and cultural stuff. One of the things we saw was a 2,300 year old bronze drum called the "Moon of Pejang" which is the largest ever cast in the world. When you consider the effort it would have required given the technology of the day it rates with the Pyramids IMO. We also saw a relief carved into the living rock about 25metres long, which was created in the 13th century. What an effort that would have required as well. On the eating side we had a lot of babi guling (roast suckling pig), nasi goreng (fried rice), nasi campur (like fried rice with assorted toppings) and sates of chicken, pork, beef and goat. For our anniversary dinner the cook at the villa we were staying at pushed the boat out with some delicious crisp spring rolls with a homemade dipping sauce, followed by a whole fish with a Balinese salsa which involved among other ingredients chillies and lemongrass, a seafood curry with prawns, squid and fish, some really outstanding chicken sates with homemade peanut dipping sauce, and some meltingly tender pork spare ribs, also with homemade sauce. Some of our other meals were eaten at street stalls which would make the FDA's hair curl, but the food was all piping hot and the stalls clean, and we didn't suffer any consequences beyond what you might after a night of really hot chillies ;-) One place we got bowls of noodles in chicken and vege soup for $1, and ten little chicken sates cooked over a charcoal grill while we watched for 50c. I think you'd love Bali, Lars, the fabrics would make your eyes light up for sure :-)

Just got in from the land of orange groves and double wide trailers. It was good, actually! I went to get granny first, and I made her cry because I gave her a rotary cutter and self healing mat... she quilts by hand and she's lost her rotary cutter and never had a self healing mat. Her hands shake now and she has trouble cutting in a straight line with fabric scissors, so I thought that would help, and she was really touched... now I just have to get her that Bunn coffee maker she's been talking about. She had a bunch of quilt blocks spread out all over the sofa so she could show me what she has been working on. She's always so happy for me to see her work, and I am so shocked that she insists in quilting by hand at her age... she thinks machine quilting isn't really quilting. I strongly disagree! I brought my Dyson to vacuum for her since her vacuum is so awful. I took the hose off the Dyson to get under her couch where the upright part was too thick to reach and heard a SLURP. The incredible suction of the Dyson pulled in an entire quilt block! And, I was nowhere near it with the wand, I still don't know how it happened. It happened so fast, I didn't even see it, just heard it. I had to open the dust bin up and retrieve it.... I apologized, but she wasn't upset at all... we both got a really good laugh out of it. It didn't even get dusty! Once I realized it didn't bother her, I laughed so hard I cried, and so did she... it took me a while to gain enough composure to retrieve the quilt block from the cleaner. I sucked up enough bobby pins and straight pins to start a factory... not to mention thread a fabric scraps.... I could make a whole quilt with what's in the dust bin. I also brought my new tiffany style lamp to show her and she really liked it. She gave me a card that was really sweet, and apologized that she didn't have any money to buy me a real present... I told her that was silly and love was all I needed (I buy myself enough "stuff")... she said,"Well, that's good because you got plenty of that" (meaning love). It was really sweet. Then we went to my uncle's and the food was ready.. they smoked chicken, grilled chicken, and BBQd chicken. The also had a salad, and baked beans with sausage. It was all REALLY good! My aunt made me a cake (just want I needed!).... it was a boxed yellow cake with store bought icing. I didn't get any salad and they were wondering why... my grandma told them I was dieting and that I love salads (which I have never said because it isn't true), so after eating the other stuff, I had a plate of salad (had to pick the tomatoes out, at least they had ranch dressing). They gave me a card and more mylar balloons (what is up with mylar ballons) and pictures of me as a kid all dressed in halloween costumes and such (remember they were the ones that raised me from 6 to 19). There was another aunt there, another grandma (not the one I was close with... the one I brought was the one I was close with) and my little cousin that I was raised with (she's 19).... we talked a while and ate and then granny stood up, which his her signal that she was ready to go home. I was too at that point.... the aunt was getting annoying (she just doesn't know when to shut up and "picks" on everyone... except me, because I haven't been back in their life long enough yet) and their spoiled black lab was begging for food and trying to lick my face the whole time. So, I took granny home and we talked a while at her place... I looked at her sewing machine and fixed the tension and wrote down the model number so I can download an print a manual for it.... she wants one and it didn't come with one when she bought it. She had trouble letting me go, she didn't want me to leave... she's so bored/lonely living out there, so I promised I'd call and be back soon and started home. It was a good day. The aunt gave me a tupperware cake carrier (turquoise!) to take the cake home in and told me to keep it... it was my little cousin's, exes and he never came to get it after they broke up. That is great because I can keep that one and give Larry my gray and white sterilite one! Oh yeah, and I popped those mylar balloons (my "car scissors" are so handy!) and threw them in the trash at the gas station on the way home. I didn't need them bouncing around in the car during the 50 minute drive home, and they would have just been one more thing to carry home. I tried to find some child to give them to, but there weren't any! I hope they don't go to the gas station later for some chewing tobacco and see them in the garbage (there's only one gas station in that town!). I'm throwing aunt's cake in the trash too because I just don't have room for it. They sent me home with lots of food and I will enjoy it for a few days... I don't have room for 3 cakes, but I'll make room for the chicken and baked beans, even if I have to throw the milk and eggs out! So, yes, a good day, I'm surprised and happy :) Larry is on his way over to try some of the Publix chocolate cake and see his nephew (Jasper the cat) and watch some Lucy :0) I guess I'd better vacuum the cat hair off the sofa (he hates cat hair) and dig a place on the couch for him to sit.... oh yeah, and wash a dish so he can try the cake.... I've been lazy with the housework lately! Thanks again everyone.... by the way, Larry said that isn't the Paula Dean recipe, but one of several he found on Google for the coconut cake. Oh yeah, the Publix cake tastes as great as it looks.... under that dark brown chocolate top layer is a lighter brown layer of mousse like frosting.... man it's good!